About This Report

A record number of students are taking online courses today, and the number is rising steadily. Technology-based learning is also seeing growing use in companies. Still, significant improvements in learners' online learning experience are necessary if online learning is to see continued growth and success. We have long known that learning is a social activity, so greater opportunities for social networking, communication, and collaboration are likely to make online learning more appealing and effective. The dramatic growth of video gaming in recent years has also made educators and learning designers consider the possibilities of applying game and simulation principles in online learning to make online learning more engaging and interesting.

The growing popularity of virtual worlds in recent years—including the dramatic success of the massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft as well as the rapid growth of Second Life, a visually rich, avatar-mediated three-dimensional virtual environment—is making available new online platforms and technologies that could take online learning and training to the next level, where new and different forms of socialization, communication, and collaboration can take place. Although efforts to incorporate these virtual worlds in more "serious" applications beyond entertainment are in their infancy, a growing number of enterprises are now exploring ways to use virtual worlds, especially Second Life, for a variety of business applications, including learning and training.

This report explores how virtual worlds, and Second Life in particular, may find use in learning and training. It describes early-adopter organizations' current activities and plans on this front and presents some plausible scenarios of future uses of virtual worlds for learning. Organizations that like to innovate and be among early adopters of technologies, perhaps partly to send a signal to their employees and customers, should consider initiating pilot projects to learn and gain new insights–especially because they can do so at low cost. Even organizations that are unlikely to embrace the use of virtual worlds for learning or other business applications in the next few years are wise at least to monitor and become familiar with virtual-world developments in light of the opportunities and threats that these advances are likely to present.

We welcome feedback about this report and the program, and we encourage you to contact us with any questions or suggestions. For more information, contact Eilif Trondsen, director, Learning-on-Demand (LoD) Program; telephone: +1 650 859 2665; fax: +1 650 859 4544; e-mail: etrondsen@sbi-i.com. We appreciate your support of our program and look forward to working closely with you as a Learning-on-Demand sponsor.

Table of Contents

About this Report	1
Executive Summary	2
The Emergence of Virtual Worlds	2
The Innovator and Early-Adoption Stage	2
The Future of Virtual-World Learning and Training	3
Recommendations and Action Steps	3
The Emergence of Virtual Worlds	5
The Innovator and Early-Adopter phase	10
Second Life: Virtual World for Business and Learning	10
Academia: Leading the Way	13
Industry: Testing the Waters	15
Construction of a Learning and Training Operation in Second Life	19
The Future of Virtual-World Learning and Training	21
Opportunities for Business	22
Challenges and Risk	24
Scenarios for Second Life Learning	25
Recommendations and Action Steps	28
Enterprise Adopters	28
Vendors of Learning Products and Services	31
Tables
Selected Virtual Worlds	8
Second Life: A Platform for Learning and Training?	11
Second Life Learning-Related Activities by Selected Companies	16
Second Life Learning and Training Scenarios	26
Figures
Virtual-World Success Factors	9
Virtual Worlds: Next-Generation Web?	21
Boxes
Key Characteristics of Virtual Worlds	6
Mitch Kapor: Second Life Investor, Chairman of the Board, and Evangelist	13
John Bransford on Learning in Second Life	15
Improvements in Graphics-Processing Technologies	23
Current Challenges to Success in Second Life	30